Arizona city mulling free shotguns in crimestopping bid

An Arizona ex-politician has announced plans to distribute free shotguns to Tucson residents living in high-crime areas. Shaun McClusky said he has begun efforts to purchase guns and ammunition, which he’ll give to anyone who can pass a background check.

The former Tucson mayoral candidate's theory is testing the
premise that more guns in an area will lead to lower crime.
McClusky said the vigilante program is necessary because the Tuscon
City Council has failed to devote enough funding to the police
department.

“We need to take back our city, and it needs to come back to
the citizens and not the criminals,” McClusky told the Arizona
Daily Star regarding his plan. “Right now, the criminal element
is winning.”

Guns in Tucson first made national headlines in January 2011,
when then-Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was critically wounded
after being shot in the head in an assassination attempt at a
public meeting with constituents. Six people were killed in the
assault, and another thirteen wounded.

The Star reported that McClusky has already raised $12,000 from
donors and will start posting leaflets within the coming weeks. He
said he’ll donate $205 - the cost of a gun and a box of ammunition
- to individuals who want to use single-break-action shotguns that
hold one shell. The total cost for each person will range between
$350 and $400, depending on the price of background checks.

“Saying guns are responsible for killing people is like
saying spoons are responsible for making people fat,” McClusky
said. “If someone wants to bring me the publicity for free and
sue me, bring it on.”

Travis Pratt, who teaches criminology and criminal justice at
Arizona State University, said the new program would likely only
increase gun violence, not curb crime in the area. Pratt was
careful to point out that the shotguns McClusky hopes to use would
have little appeal to criminals.

“There is no credible evidence at all that providing a
high-crime area with the instruments to facilitate more crime is
going to have any net social benefits,” Pratt told the Arizona
Daily Star. “These kinds of rhetorical devices get thrown around
a lot and they’re politically popular here in Arizona.”

“There isn’t the same potential for gun violence as if you
were handing out 9 millimeters,” he said.

McClusky’s idea is based on an experiment proposed last month in
Houston, Texas. Kyle Coplen, a University of Houston graduate
student and founder of the Armed Citizens Project, declared he’d be
offering 20-gauge single-shotguns to residents in dangerous parts
of the city. The Armed Citizens Project wrote on its website that
its mission is “to find if there exists a causal link between an
increase in the presence of firearms and the level of
crime.”

“Pro-gun activists have largely been content to simply fend
off new potential gun control laws,” the site continued.
“Both sides believe that their policies will result in less
crime, and it is about time that our side begins to act with the
conviction and courage that it will take to win the
debate.”